


Tales of Tragic Ends

by RavieSnake



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Death, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Angst, Blood and Injury, Brain Damage, Caught, Character Death, Curses, Dark, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Explicit Language, F/M, Fist Fights, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Malfoy Manor, Murder, Murder-Suicide, Permanent Injury, Prison, Psychological Trauma, Tragedy, Unhealthy Relationships, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 21:29:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8770003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavieSnake/pseuds/RavieSnake
Summary: A collection of the saddest, evilest, most depressing Dramione scenes, drabbles, and ficlets from the darkest recesses of imagination. No Happily Ever Afters here. You’ve been warned.





	1. Almost There

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters/concepts from it. I make no money from the writing/publishing of this work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: MCD

**Almost There**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

They were running.

Joints grinding, muscles screaming with every pounding footfall.

Grasses and branches whipped their arms and faces as they tore over the wild landscape. They kept running.

Screams from behind alerted them to the fact that they weren’t running fast enough.

He pushed harder. She tried to keep up.

Their chests heaved. Every breath strained and wheezing with their exertions.

The wind sliced at them. Their hair was flying. They kept running.

An explosion of green light burst between them with a near deafening crack.

They didn’t even scream at the impossibly close miss. They just kept running.

His legs were longer. She started to fall behind. He reached out his hand without even looking. She grabbed it as they hurtled on and she felt his magic vibrate into her fingers to give her a boost. Her feet hammered against the dirt as she used it to stay at his side.  

And they kept running.

Another blast of green. It struck so close, the concussion hit him and he stumbled to the ground.

“Draco!”

She pulled at him frantically and he scrambled to his feet. He shook away the buzzing in his ears and he grasped at her to keep himself steady. The sounds of the others were getting louder.

They both glanced back and then at each other. Terrified brown eyes met horrified grey. They were losing their lead.

“MALFOY!” a voice taunted harshly from somewhere behind. “YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE!”

They reclasped hands in determination at that and started off again. And they ran. Over the thick terrain that was never meant for running.

Their eyes stung and watered. Their lungs burned. Their sides protested.

“Almost….there…” he panted, raw, desperate hope coloring his hoarse voice. They could see the shimmer in the distance. The edge of the wards.

Another spell erupted at their backs. White light flared as she flew forward and crumpled.

“Hermione!” he screamed. He scooped her up in his arms with barely a stop in his step and without a look back. He ran on, his already strained breath coming out in dramatic puffs as he tried to push himself with her added weight.

“Draco,” she gurgled miserably as her limp form was jostled in his hold. She struggled for breath and when she coughed her blood spurted in his face. He kept running.

“Almost…there…Granger…”

“Dra…”

“Almost…there…”

He kept running.

A final flash of green. It hit its mark. He fell at once, his momentum tumbling them both forward past the shimmering wall of magic that had imprisoned them. They landed side by side and she used the last of her strength to pull her head up to look at him.

Dying brown eyes stared into blank, unmoving grey. She let the curse take her then.

They no longer needed to run.


	2. Last Kiss

**Last Kiss**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

“You have two minutes, Ms. Granger,” the guard reminded Hermione as he clanked the barred door to the cell shut behind her. She nodded at him over her shoulder in understanding and the man glared at the cell’s main occupant before turning away.

Hermione inhaled deeply and then faced the condemned man before her.

“Draco,” she said quietly.

Draco was sitting on the floor, head bowed and his knees pulled up toward his chest, his arms folded over the top of them. He didn’t look up.

“Life,” he said into his arms.

A tear tracked down Hermione’s cheek. “I tried,” she said miserably, “I really did. Harry did too. But they…”

“They can’t risk letting the big, bad Death Eater corrupt anyone else,” Draco sneered bitterly.

“We’ll keep trying,” Hermione insisted. “Draco, I will never stop trying to-“

“No,” he interrupted, raising his face to look at her through dead, grey eyes. “No more.”

Hermione shook her head and took a step toward him. “Draco, we’ll figure this out. I won’t let you suffer here alone. I’ll keep-”

“Do me a favor, Granger,” he cut her off again, “and get the fuck out of here.”

“Drac-”

“Leave!” he snapped, shooting to his feet and then grimacing downward with a growl when he was tugged back slightly by the chains shackled to his wrists. “Go,” he said after looking back up at her, “don’t come back.”

Hermione’s bottom lip trembled. “I won’t leave you here. I love you.”

Draco’s face hardened into a contemptuous glare. “Stupid bitch,” he said. Hurt flickered in Hermione’s eyes but she squared her shoulders.

“You don’t mean that,” she said surely. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

His brow ticked upward. “You think so?”

Hermione nodded. “You’re trying to make me think you never loved me to try and protect me.”

Draco sniffed derisively. “You always thought you were so fucking smart. Get this through your thick skull, Granger…I fucking _hate_ you. I’ve always hated you. I never loved you. I USED you because I thought you’d be able to get me out of here. And what a fucking mistake that obviously was.”

Hermione’s face had gone stony, but she shook her head. “No,” she said fiercely taking another step toward him. “You said you loved me. You meant it. I know you mea-”

He kissed her.

Draco’s arms remained at his sides with the weight of the chains, but Hermione’s hands latched onto his face as she pressed herself against him with a moan. 

The guard cleared his throat loudly from the other side of the cell door and Hermione slowly, reluctantly pulled her lips from Draco’s. She looked him in the eyes and gasped at the absolute loathing she saw being projected at her.

Draco smacked his lips with an obnoxious, repulsed pout. “Mudblood,” he sneered before spitting forcefully to the side. “You always did taste like dirt.”

Hermione blinked at him in shock and then slapped him. Draco’s head turned with the force of the strike and he slowly turned his face to her again.

“Get the fuck out, you worthless bitch,” he snarled coldly as the guard opened the door. Hermione held her head high as she gave Draco one last hard once over.

“Good bye, Malfoy,” she said shortly, her voice wavering only slightly. He merely turned away from her and sunk back down to sit on the floor.

When he heard the loud clunk of the door locking closed again, he looked over his shoulder to find himself alone.

“Good bye, my love,” he whispered before breaking down with his head in his hands.


	3. No Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: graphic violence, blood & injury

**No Fun**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

Hermione’s eyes shot open when she heard the lock on the cellar door click. She stared into the blackness around her and her breathing quickened as she listened to the footsteps approaching her. The gag in her mouth ensured that she kept silent, but the chains securing her to the pillar she was sitting up against rattled with the faintest tinkling as she tensed.

“It’s me,” someone suddenly whispered to her from the dark.

Hermione immediately relaxed at the sound of Draco’s voice. A second later, a light flared to life from the tip of his wand to illuminate the Manor’s cellar. She squinted against the sudden brightness and then watched as he carefully propped his wand against another pillar to keep them cast in a steady light and then approach her.

“Draco,” she exhaled in relief the moment he removed her gag.

“It’s time,” he said, pulling a key and hastily moving to begin unlocking her chains.

She blinked at him in shock. “Time?” she asked, her hope carefully restrained.

Draco nodded as he dropped the first chain to the floor with a clink. “They’re all out. They left me on guard. But we have to be quick. They could come back at any time.”

Hermione’s chest heaved as her adrenaline started to spike at the news. “But…but they’ll know you did it. They’ll punish you if they find me missing when they return.”

“If I were here they would,” he said, pausing to give her the smallest of smirks.

“You’re coming with,” she confirmed breathily.

His smirk spread into a smile and he leaned forward to kiss her. Hermione moaned quietly and Draco pulled back. “I go where you go,” he said, love and determination apparent in his gaze.

Hermione’s mouth finally pulled into a smile as well at that and Draco reached for the next chain. Before he could place the key into its lock, however, he was blown back in a burst of red light.

“Draco!” Hermione screamed as she watched him land on his back on the floor and gasp for the breath that had been knocked out of him.

“Knew you was a rat,” a harsh voice called out as Draco rolled onto his side, his hands clutched to his chest as he groaned. Hermione shot her gaze to the source of the voice to see Fenrir Greyback’s hulking form in the doorway. Her already heavy breathing became erratic when he began walking toward them.

“Draco…” she whimpered urgently. “Draco, get up!”

Draco hissed in pain as he tried to sit up, but Greyback lunged and was on him in an instant.

“No!” Hermione screamed as the werewolf pinned Draco to the floor with a hand to his throat.

Greyback grinned as the blond struggled beneath him. “Thought you could get away, eh?” he taunted, punching Draco once in the side of the head. Greyback looked over his shoulder at a now crying Hermione. “And take with you your little Mudblood whore?”

“Let…let us go,” Draco’s pained voice wheezed out through his constricted airway. “Let us go…and…and I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you any…thing….”

Greyback’s grin widened. “I’m so tired of you arrogant fucks,” he said before punching Draco again full force in the face. His nose broke with the blow and blood spurted down over his mouth and chin.

“Draco!” Hermione shouted, wriggling madly against her chains.

“Please,” Draco pleaded desperately. “Please… don’t…”

Greyback laughed.

“Oh, you’re begging,” he nearly purred with satisfaction. “You-Know-Who will be happy to know that you begged.” He punched Draco again. And then again.

“Stop it!” Hermione shrieked as Greyback delivered blow after blow. “Stop! Stop, please!”

Draco’s arms went limp after the sixth hit, but Greyback didn’t stop. Flecks of red splattered back at him with each connection of his fist with Draco’s broken features. Hermione sobbed wretchedly against the pillar.

“Please,” she choked out pitifully, “please, stop. Please…”

Greyback delivered a final series of punches and then sat back on his heels to examine his work. He let out a low, pleased growl at the sight of the pulpy mess that had been Draco’s face and then held his right hand up in the air. He flexed his fingers several times while he admired the blood dripping from them.

“Pureblood always has been my favorite,” he said after sucking his index finger clean with a moan. Hermione let out a particularly anguished sob at that and Greyback turned to leer at her. “Though, I won’t say no to something a little… _dirtier_ ,” he added. He moved off of Draco with more grace than should’ve been possible for someone his size and then crouched before Hermione.

She visibly trembled and shut her eyes tight, but kept her head held high as he pushed his face close to her neck and inhaled deeply. “Yeah, that’s the stuff,” he growled.

“Don’t…”

The strangled plea was barely audible but it stopped Greyback at once and sent Hermione’s eyes shooting back open. They both looked back at Draco who had managed to roll onto his side.

“Don’t…” he repeated with obvious, agonizing effort, peering up at them through one red and barely distinguishable eye, “don’t…hurt…her.”

Greyback looked momentarily impressed that Draco could still talk and then chuckled. “Now, you see…that’s the problem with you poncy shites. You don’t know how to have any real fun.” He returned his attention back to Hermione and ran the pointed nails of his bloody hand lightly down her cheek. She shivered and he bared his yellowed teeth at her.

“Let’s show lover boy just how fun hurting you can be…”


	4. Some Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: emotional abuse, alcohol abuse, unhealthy relationship

**Some Night**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

For weeks before a coworker’s wedding, I talked about wanting to dance. It had been so long since Draco and I had been able to go out and I was beyond excited at the prospect of cutting loose with him on the dance floor. I was especially looking forward to a slow dance. It’d literally been years since we’d had a proper one.

I told him I was looking forward to it. He promised me that we’d dance. He also promised he wouldn’t drink. I was looking forward to that even more.

The wedding finally came. The reception came after. When dinner had finished and the music came to life, Draco excused himself. He said he just needed some air and stepped out. So, I waited.

I watched the joyous people dancing freely on the dance floor. A slow song came…and went. Then another. I continued to wait. Alone.

When a dozen songs had passed and I still sat stationary, I got up and searched the hall for Draco. When I couldn’t find him, I figured he’d gone for a walk. He does that sometimes. So, I decided I’d try and have some fun by myself. He’d surely be back soon. 

I joined the other guests in their frivolity as best I could with the heavy feeling in my chest. I wanted Draco with me. When another slow song came on and I found myself alone when the others paired off, the feeling worsened.

I went to the DJ and requested the song that Draco and I had danced to at our own wedding reception and then went in search of him again. We would dance to our song. And the night could still be salvaged. That’s what I told myself.

I went outside to search again for my husband to try and discover what had kept him from coming back to claim me and fulfill his promise.

When I found him, he was talking with a group of young, single girls I didn’t know. They were all laughing loudly. He was smiling.

He was drunk.

I went to them and asked why he’d never come back in. I reminded him that he promised me he wouldn’t drink. I reminded him he promised me a dance.

He got angry. I was ruining his good time. He was just talking. He was just having fun. Why was I being such a bitch? 

“You’re always such a nag, Hermione.”

I went back inside and sat at the table again. Alone. Watching the others dance.

Our song came on. He never came in.

An hour later, he was helped into our car by another guest who gave me a pitying look. I thanked the man and then got into the car myself. Draco was already passed out. I drove the two hours back to our home in the dark on unfamiliar, desolate country roads while he snored. He woke only once during the trip to complain that I was ‘driving too loudly’ before passing out again.

I helped him stumble inside our house when we arrived back. He told me he loved me as I hefted him into our bed. I merely nodded and then went back outside when he promptly fell back asleep.

I sat on our front porch in my expensive dress and watched the moon as I cried. She stayed up with me as I poured the pain of my broken heart into the chilly air. She bathed me in blue light and gave me the hope of another night. 

Some night he’ll stay sober. Some night I’ll get my dance.

Some night I’ll find the strength to leave him.

All these years later, I still keep telling myself that.

Some night.


	5. Take Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: MCD

**Take Away**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

Hermione stepped out of her Floo looking harried and exhausted.

"Why is it always that when you need to be somewhere something comes up?" she grumbled to herself, brushing at her robes. She looked up, pushing a fallen brown curl from her face and spotted Draco on the couch.

"Oh," she said, slightly startled, "Oh, Draco, what time is it? Geez, it must be after six. I am s _o_ sorry. I hope you haven't been waiting too long."

Draco simply smiled at her. "Rough day?" he asked pleasantly.

Hermione hung her bag on a hook near the door and tugged off her robes. "You have no idea," she groused, hanging the robes and then stepping over to the couch. She plopped down next to him and leaned her head back with a groan.

“So,” she began as she stared at the ceiling, “I got to work this morning and just as I was about to go into a meeting, of course, I get an urgent memo that I’m needed on the top level. So, I had to postpone the meeting, rush to the top level, help them, then hurry back down...only to find an elf in my office smashing his head in one of my file drawers. So, then I had to sort _that_ out. Then I had to speed through my appointments, cancel and reschedule two others, then have my meeting where _everyone_ was grouchy, submit my report from it to Kingsley… Then I had to contact accounting to try and fix a routing error for the Society because someone sent the wrong invoices last month and an owl crapped on my desk, and then I finally get out of there and… Damn it all, I forgot the take-away!"

She threw her arm over her face and slumped down into the couch.

Draco stared at her wide eyed, but amused. "An owl crapped on your desk?"

Hermione lowered her arm and glared at him. "Only after it delivered the lovely Howler that its owner sent me, yes."

"You got a Howler at work?" he asked surprised.

"Yes. You see it is somehow _my_ fault that the man freed his own house elf," she sneered sarcastically. She turned to Draco with a somewhat wild look. "The arsehole didn't want his wife to catch him cheating. So, what does he do? He gives his elf his mistress’s knickers and tells her to hide them. Then he realizes 'oh shite, I just gave her clothes' and now _I'm_ the bad guy because the elf came to me for new placement. He sent me a death threat even."

“And you like this job why?” Draco asked.

Hermione exhaled dramatically, looking back at the ceiling. “Because I help them. That poor elf was so distraught. The man blamed her for the incident and tried to…I don’t even want to tell you. It was bad and that man is a monster and why any woman would ever want to sleep with him I don’t know. But that elf, she has a new master now. A _decent_ master…because of me.”

“That’s my girl,” Draco teased affectionately, “still saving the world one being at a time.”

Hermione wrinkled her nose at him at that but smiled and put her hand over his to lace their fingers together.

They sat in companionable silence for a moment then until Draco said, “And it’s because he’s wealthy, by the way.”

“What?” Hermione turned to him confused.

“The man,” Draco said matter-of-factly, “if he has an elf, he’s wealthy. That’s why any woman would want to sleep with him.”

Hermione scoffed. “Not _any_ woman. I’m sorry to tell you, rich boy…not all of us will sleep with a man just because of what he has in his vaults.”

Draco grinned widely. “No? So, tell me…why would _you_ sleep with a man?”

Hermione started to smirk at him but then looked curious as the smell of food wafted her way. She sniffed at the air and turned her head to look towards her kitchen table to see take-away boxes set out neatly beside two place settings. She slowly looked back at Draco and smiled. “Because he knew me well enough to know that I’d forget the dinner and picked it up himself,” she said in sincere fondness.

Draco continued to smile and raised a hand to tuck one of her wild curls behind her ear. He leaned in for a kiss and just as their lips were about to touch they were startled apart by a loud cracking noise.

“What the fuck!?” Draco exclaimed angrily as they both looked over to see an obviously distraught house elf shaking in the middle of the living room.

Hermione’s eyes went wide in alarm. “What are you-” she started to ask when the creature turned to interrupt her with tears pouring down its face.

“I sorry, miss,” the elf blubbered. “I sorry, but new master order me…he order me to…I sorry…”

It raised its small hands and Hermione and Draco both reached for their wands but it was too late. Hermione’s body collapsed over onto Draco on the couch and her eyes fell closed as her life slipped away under the elf’s magic.

The elf sobbed when she lowered her hands and then looked at a stunned Draco. “I sorry,” she whispered once more before disappearing with another crack.

Draco blinked at the vacated space and then down at Hermione, lifeless in his lap. “Granger…?” he pushed at her and then reality sank in. He grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her rather violently. “GRANGER!? Hermione!?” He fell to his knees before the couch, taking Hermione’s limp form with him. “No, no, no, no…” he chanted pitifully, tears welling, as he rocked back and forth with her held tightly against him.

He glanced at the rapidly cooling dinner in the kitchen that would never be eaten and the velvet ring box he’d set purposefully before Hermione’s place and then broke down completely.

“Hermione,” he cried wretchedly as he hugged her. “Hermione…”


	6. Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Includes: traumatic brain injury, permanent brain damage

**Mine**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

“Here we go…next bite,” Hermione said encouragingly as she held up the spoon. “That’s it, just a bit wider…a little more…

She prodded his bottom lip gently with the tip of the spoon and Draco opened wider. Hermione fed him the spoonful and smiled.

“There we are! You’re doing so well today, Draco!” she praised.

Draco’s head began to droop as he chewed slowly at the bite of mush and Hermione put her hand tenderly to his chin. “Head up,” she reminded him. When he lifted his head and swallowed, Hermione lifted another spoonful of food. “Next bite…”

She brought the spoon to his mouth again, but Draco flopped his head to the side in his wheelchair. His eyes rolled slightly as he appeared to try and look around. Hermione sighed and set the spoon back into the bowl on the table beside them.

“Done eating, then?” she said.

Draco merely continued to swivel his unfocused eyes about. Hermione picked up her wand and spelled away the food he’d dribbled on himself and then set her hands gently to his still legs.

“How about we read something,” she suggested, “I just got in Luna’s newest novel?”

“Mine,” Draco slurred. He tilted his head back down and flapped his left hand. “Mine.”

Hermione smiled at him again and patted his thigh. “I’ll go get it,” she said, rising from her chair. She retrieved the book and promptly returned. She spelled the book to hover before Draco and then slid her chair to sit directly beside him to begin to read to him. Before she’d finished the first chapter, however, there was a knock at the door.

Hermione immediately grabbed her wand and stood.

“Mine…” Draco called out anxiously, his eyes rolling wildly. “Mine. Mine.”

“It’s okay,” she answered him gently. “I’ll be right back.”

“Mine…”

Hermione put their book on the table, patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and then went to the door and looked through the peephole to see Ron standing on the other side. With a deep huff, she opened the door.

“Hello, Ron,” she smiled. She stepped aside and held the door open wider. “Come on in.”

“Mine!”

Ron stepped in as Hermione looked over her shoulder in Draco’s direction. “It’s just Ron,” she called back to him. She stashed her wand in her back pocket and then closed the door and turned back to her visitor. “What brings you here today? Are you alright?”

Ron glanced to where Draco was parked and then leveled a concerned look at Hermione. “I’m fine. I, uh…I just thought you might like some company,” he said.

Hermione frowned slightly. “Why are you really here?”

There was a pause as Ron looked once more at Draco. “Harry and I have been talking,” he started and Hermione crossed her arms defensively at his tone.

“Oh…?”

Ron nodded. “We’ve been talking and we think it’s time you…well, we think it’d be best for everyone if…”

“Mine! Mine!”

Hermione immediately hurried over to Draco’s side, leaving Ron standing awkwardly near the door. “I’m here, shh, I’m here…” she tried to calm him as he flapped his hand and tossed his head back and forth. “Draco, it’s okay…”

Ron scowled at the scene. “It’s time you had him put in St. Mungo’s, Hermione,” he said. Hermione cast him a glare as she continued to tend to an agitated Draco.

“Is that what you came to tell me? Is that what you and Harry have been discussing?” she asked him in a low, angry voice. Ron pointed at Draco.

“You shouldn’t have to keep taking care of that by yourself anymore.”

Hermione’s face hardened further. “ _He_  is not a  _‘that’_.

“Hermione, he’s-”

“And Narcissa and Andromeda both come a few times a week to help, so I’m not exactly alone,” she cut him off. “Besides, if you recall, and you should since you were at our wedding, I made a vow to stick by  _him_  through sickness and through heal-”

“He’s never going to get any better, Hermione!” Ron interrupted rather forcefully. The shouting sent Draco into another fit and Hermione patted and rubbed at him soothingly.

“Keep your voice down,” she seethed at Ron, “you’re upsetting him.”

“Look at you,” Ron snapped back, running his hands through his hair in frustration, “look what your life has become. Are you seriously going to tell me that you’re happy here, taking care of him every second of every day? Feeding him and wiping up his drool and changing his fucking nappies!?”

“Mine! Mine!?” Draco flailed in his chair.

“Ron, you need to leave,” Hermione nearly growled as she grabbed at Draco’s hand to try and calm him again.

“Hermione,” Ron tried again, lowering his voice, “you deserve better than this. Bring him to St. Mungo’s where they can take care of him so you can have a proper life.”

“Is that what you’d want Gabrielle to do to you if you had an accident, Ronald?” Hermione asked him very seriously. “You’d want her to just ship you away and move on as if you didn’t exist?”

Ron stared silently at her for a long moment as she finally got Draco to still.

“Mine,” Draco said quietly. Hermione smiled at him and rubbed her palm affectionately over his cheek before looking back up at Ron.

“Is that all he ever says?” he asked her with a sneering pout.

“It’s how he says my name,” she said. “I understand him just fine.”

Ron scoffed and shook his head. “There’s nothing to understand. He’s a fucking retard!”

Hermione stood very slowly and reached back for her wand. Her knuckles were white around it as she glared daggers at her old friend. “Get the fuck out of my house,” she said.

When Ron went to open his mouth, she raised her wand and leveled it at him. “Get. Out.” she repeated threateningly. Ron looked to her wand, then back at her face before casting a final glare at Draco. He turned and swiftly let himself out without another look back, slamming the door shut.

Hermione continued to glare at the door for several moments until she heard Draco make a choking noise. She set her wand aside at once and retook her seat by him to make sure he was okay. She took his hand in hers and he looked her in the eyes.

“Mine…” he said. She gave him a sad smile and he opened and closed his mouth several times before he managed to get out, “I…sor…ry…”

Hermione clutched at his hand and burst into tears. “Oh, Draco,” she cried, “don’t be sorry. Don’t you dare ever be sorry.” She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to his lips and his eyes closed contentedly at the contact. “I love you, Draco. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

A tear slipped down Draco’s cheek when she set her forehead to his. “Mine,” he whispered. “Mine.”


	7. Not for Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: murder/suicide, MCD, psychological trauma

**Not for Me**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

“Hermione, please… don’t -”

“Sshhh,” Hermione shook her head ever-so-gently as she lowered her face so close to Draco’s their lips nearly touched. “Quiet now,” she said, pressing the edge of the knife against his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed over it as he gulped.

“No,” he begged quietly, not even bothering to fight against his bonds, “not…not like this.”

Hermione bit her lip and closed her eyes as she bowed her head slightly and inhaled deeply. She smiled and released a sigh.

“I’ve always loved the way you smell,” she said dreamily, her eyes still shut. “Do you suppose we’ll be able to smell beyond the Veil?”

“Hermione…”  Draco’s voice quavered, “please…just talk to me. We can get through this. You and me against the world, remember?”

Hermione snapped her eyes open and met his pleading gaze. She lovingly brushed his pale hair off of his forehead with her free hand.

“We’ve fought for so long,” she said, suddenly sounding sad.

Draco tried to nod but stopped at the feel of the blade pressing in harder. “Yes, but the war’s over, my love,” he reminded his troubled wife. She shook her head as she ran her fingers through his hair and then down the side of his face.

“Not for me,” she whispered so softly Draco barely heard it despite their close proximity. Their eyes met again and Draco’s heart gave a sick jolt in his chest at the realization that he’d finally lost her. His beloved had, at long last, lost her fight with the demons that the horrors of the war had imprinted upon her psyche.

He took a deep breath and smiled at the woman straddling him. “I love you,” he said.

A wide smile spread across Hermione’s face and she nodded. “I’ve always loved you,” she replied sincerely, before drawing the blade across him in one smooth motion. A muted gurgling sound escaped Draco’s mouth with the cut, but he kept his eyes locked on to hers as she brought the knife to her own neck and sent her blood pouring down to seep with his into their sheets.


	8. Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: violence, MCD

**Enough**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

 

“Stop it! Stop!” Hermione shrieked, stomping her feet.

Draco and Ron paid her no heed as they continued to fight. They growled and grunted as they scuffled rather violently in Hermione’s front hallway. Ron’s bottom lip was already split. Draco’s knuckles were bleeding.

“Fucking Death Eater!” Ron spat venomously, struggling and clawing as Draco pulled him into a chokehold.

“You worthless piece of fuck,” Draco snarled right back, tightening his hold. “Fucking leave her alone! She left you for a reason!”

Ron growled loudly and threw his head back hard. The back of his head connected with Draco’s face and the blond released him to stumble backwards with the force.

“Stop it!” Hermione screamed again as Draco cupped his now profusely bleeding nose and tried to regain his bearings.

“You don’t deserve her,” Ron said, his lip curling back in a hateful sneer as he rubbed at his neck. “You just sat there as your batshit crazy aunt tortured her! Fucking coward.”

“That’s enough!” Hermione snapped, stepping up and swiveling her head to glare at each of them. “Enough!”

Draco sniffed at the blood dripping down his face and let out a mirthless, sarcastic chuckle. “Say what you want, Weaselbee,” he taunted, “but coward or not, I’m the one she chose….and there’s no going back now…”

“Draco,” Hermione hissed in warning. He grinned, wiping at his nose.

“How’s it feel…knowing that it’s _my_ heir in there?” he inquired of Ron, pointing at Hermione’s middle.

Ron’s eyebrows shot up in shock. “ _Your heir…?_ ” he mouthed silently before turning wide, betrayed eyes on Hermione. She instinctively grabbed a hand to her lower abdomen with a guilty look, and Ron nearly shook with rage as he returned his attention to Draco.

“I’ll kill you,” he said before suddenly charging at him. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

They connected again in a flurry of flying fists and pained grunts and expletives.

Hermione tugged at her hair in exasperation. “Enough! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”  

Draco managed to land a rather brutal punch to Ron’s ribs and Ron fell back with a wheeze.

“Had enou-” Draco started to jeer, but Ron lunged and slammed back into him so hard that they both crashed into the basement door behind them. The door gave under the force and Hermione screamed as both men began to tumble forward.

Both of their arms flailed almost comically as they attempted to stop themselves from falling. Ron managed to grab hold of the door jamb –halting him at the top of the stairs- but Draco kept going.

The loud, sickly sound of flesh and bone connecting repeatedly with wood echoed through the hall. When silence fell a second later after a final thud, time seemed to stop as Hermione and Ron stood, frozen in horrified shock.

Ron blinked down into the darkness of the basement and slowly turned his terrified, ashen face to Hermione.

“No…” she whispered, shaking her head before darting to the stairs. She immediately flipped on the basement light and then let out a distressed wail at the sight of Draco’s motionless, heaped body at the foot of the stairs. “Draco!”

She pushed past Ron and hurried down the steps. She knelt down at Draco’s side and gingerly reached forward to set a hand to his shoulder. The action caused his crumpled form to fall onto its side to reveal a very obviously broken neck.

Hermione let out a heart wrenching sob as she looked into the blank, dead eyes of her lover and then fell over him.

“Draco,” she blubbered, hugging her arms desperately around him, "Draco, Draco, Draco.”

Ron still stood in the basement doorway and gaped down at the scene in abject horror. “I…I didn’t…I didn’t mean…” he stammered fearfully.

“You killed him,” Hermione choked out as she continued to sob. “You killed him.”

Ron fell to his knees and doubled over to dry heave.

“You killed him,” Hermione repeated miserably. “You killed him.”


	9. The Lovers' End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: referenced kidnapping, evidence of torture, blood/injury, MCD

**The Lovers' End**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

 

“Ron!” Harry bolted upright from his reclined position on his bed.

“What? What’s wrong?” Ron asked fearfully, looking up from his book. Harry shook the map at him.

“Hermione and Malfoy! They’re on the map!”

“What!?” Ron leapt from his chair over to where Harry was and stared down at the Marauders’ Map. Sure enough, there right in front of the school’s main entrance, were two small, slowly rotating dots labeled Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger.

“How come they’re just staying there walking around each other?” Ron asked confused.

“I don’t know, but we have to tell Dumbledore!” Harry yelled as he darted to the door, Ron right behind him. They sprinted down the main hall and saw Snape walking just ahead of them.

“Professor!” he shouted hoarsely. Snape whirled around and scowled.

“Potter, is there a reason you feel the need to shou…” Snape began to scold, but Harry cut him off and thrust the map at him.

“Malfoy…and…Hermione,” he panted as he grabbed a stitch in his side. “They’re…they’re just outside!”

Snape snatched the map from him. He took one look, his eyes widening, and then took off towards the main entrance. Harry and Ron ran after him. As the three of them ran, Snape cast a Patronus and his silver doe went bounding away. They all skidded to a stop before the giant, oak front doors and Snape frantically performed a series of spells to unlock them.

When the last lock clicked open, the three men hurled themselves out into the overcast grounds in search of the two students that had gone missing from Hogsmeade nearly a week prior…and then stopped dead in their tracks.

Ron bent over and vomited. Harry stood still, paralyzed by the horror of what he was seeing. Snape’s face contorted with equal parts dismay and disgust.

Not more than twenty feet in front of them were Draco and Hermione… recognizable only by their distinctive hair.

 They were suspended in the air a few feet off the ground as their bodies slowly rotated in place. They were both naked and bound together, chest to chest, arms tied behind the other’s back so their hands came to rest just above their backsides. Hermione’s head rested on Draco’s shoulder, her face turned towards his neck, and Draco’s head rested on Hermione’s shoulder with his face turned toward her neck. One might have thought they were embracing…

But they were swollen and bruised and blood trickled down their legs and dripped from their toes onto the soft grass below them.  As they rotated it became clear where the blood was coming from.

Carved into the flesh of Hermione’s back, right down the entire length of her spine, was the word MUDBLOOD.

Down Draco’s back was TRAITOR.

Dumbledore came sprinting out the door. “Severus, I got you Patro…” The words were lost as the headmaster joined Harry, Ron and Snape in staring in shock at the blood-covered and seemingly unconscious couple.

“He killed them,” Snape said quietly as Dumbledore approached them. Harry picked-up the map that Snape had dropped at his side.

“But they’re on the map,” Harry choked out. “They can’t be dead…they’re on the map,” he pleaded to the scene.

“My Gods…” Dumbledore said softly. He waved his wand over Draco and Hermione as they hovered.

“What!?” Ron asked panicked as Dumbledore’s face went pale.

 “A curse,” he whispered. “It’s-”

“Get them down! Fix them!” Harry exploded, interrupting the headmaster as he lunged forward, hand outstretched toward Hermione’s legs.

“Don’t touch them!” Dumbledore roared. “They’re surrounded by a deadly ward.”

Harry stopped and shook uncontrollably as Ron tried to calm himself.

“What’s happening to them?” he managed to ask miserably.

Dumbledore’s face looked pained as he watched his doomed students slowly turn about. “ _The Lovers’ End,”_ he answered and Snape made a strangled noise of disbelief.

Ron and Harry both looked at him. “What?” they asked at the same time.

“It’s a curse,” the headmaster said gravely, “one once common in the middle ages to discourage young men and women from defying arranged marriages. Once inflicted upon a couple, _The Lovers’ End_ will cause excruciating pain to both people until one of them denies his or her love for the other. The one denied will then die and the curse will end for the survivor.”

“So, they’re still in pain!?” Ron blurted out.

Dumbledore continued to forlornly watch Draco and Hermione. “A _crucio_ would have been kinder.”

“You have to do something,” Harry demanded desperately as Ron’s knees gave out and he sunk to the ground.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. “If we try to end the curse it will kill them both. Only death will end their suffering…either by their decision or ours.”

Ron started crying and Harry’s face shattered with grief.  “They’ll never deny each other,” he said despondently.

“A life without love is a fate worse than death,” Dumbledore said, his anguished voice laced with pride.

They all watched the bloodied, star-crossed souls for a silent, stricken moment until matching tortured sobs suddenly ripped from Draco and Hermione’s throats as they spun.

Dumbledore pursed his lips at that and nodded once at Snape who nodded back grimly and they both raised their wands.

“No!” Ron and Harry screamed together, but the two professors had already cast matching  _finites_  that sent Draco and Hermione plummeting lifelessly to the ground in a heap.

Ron immediately scurried forward on all fours to their side and pulled both of their bodies into a hug as he sobbed. Harry merely blinked in shock down at his map…

Draco and Hermione’s dots were gone.


	10. They Never Let Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: MCD

**They Never Let Go**

**.**

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

**.**

_“I’m sorry, what?” Hermione asked, her voice quivering._

_“Permanent,” the Healer repeated with the awkward, sympathetic remorse that only telling a husband and wife they could never touch each other again could cause._

_Draco shook his head in adamant denial of that prognosis. “It can’t be permanent!” he scowled at the woman. “You’re obviously incompetent. Get me another Healer!”_

_“Draco…” Hermione hissed at him in admonishment of his outburst._

_“Don’t_ ‘Draco’ _me,” he snapped at her. “You heard what she just told us. It can’t be permanent. There’s always a counter-curse. There has to be a counter-curse. There has to be something!”_

_“We’ve consulted every Healer on our staff and not one-” the Healer began to explain, but Draco cut her off._

_“Then consult someone NOT on your bloody staff, you useless twat!”_

_The Healer sighed but remained professional. “We have,” she informed him patiently. “We Floo contacted hospitals in France, The United States, Canada, China…a dozen different facilities. All had the same answer. There is no known spell or potion that can reverse the curse that was placed on you.”_

_“I refuse to believe that,” Draco almost growled._

_“Surely there’s some hope,” Hermione spoke up. “A counter-curse could be developed…”_

_The Healer gave her a less than encouraging smile. “You can certainly try. But the curse is an ancient one. If a remedy hasn’t been discovered by now…”_

_“You obviously don’t know how clever my wife is,” Draco sneered. The Healer merely stood from the stool she was seated on and tucked her wand up her sleeve._

_“I’m sorry, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy,” she said, looking between them both, “but I’m afraid there’s really nothing more we can do. If you’d like to discuss ideas on how to maintain intimacy in your marriage without the benefit of touch, we have several therapists on staff that may have ideas that-”_

_“Get out of my sight,” Draco demanded coldly before she could finish. The Healer let out another tired sigh but merely nodded before swiftly exiting the exam room._

_The moment she was gone, Hermione broke down in tears. Draco went to her side at once and sat down._

_“We will figure this out,” he said. “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. We will fix this.”_

_Hermione swiped at the tears on her cheeks and gave him a sad smile. “I love you,” she hiccuped._

_Draco returned her smile. “I love you too,” he said, reaching up to tuck her unruly hair behind her ear out of habit. His finger brushed against the side of her face and they both screamed. Draco yanked his hand back at once to inspect the massive, painful blister that was already forming on his knuckle._

_“Gods, I’m sorry,” he said, tears welling in his own eyes as he looked up to see Hermione wincing as she touched at the burn on her cheek. “Im sorry.”_

_"I'm sorry."_

“I’m sorry,” Draco said out loud in his sleep as he thrashed. “I’m sorry!”

He bolted upright suddenly in his bed and gasped for breath as he blinked away the nightmare of the frightful memory of that fateful day so many years ago. He sat there for several minutes to calm himself and then looked over to his wife’s bed a few feet from his to find it empty. He frowned and pushed aside his blankets to prepare to get up. He slowly managed to stand and put on his slippers before picking up his wand and his eyeglasses from the nightstand.

“Hermione?” he called out as he slipped the glasses onto his face. He left the bedroom and shuffled down the main hall of their home in search of her. “Hermione?”

He found her in the back garden. It was raining, but she was standing in the middle of the grass in her nightgown and Wellingtons as she waved her wand and hands in intricate circles before herself. Her grey, rain-soaked curls hung heavily down her back with the weight of the water as she worked her magic.

“What are you doing?” Draco called out to her from where he stood in the back door. She never stopped her hand and wand movements as she glanced over to him.

“I read that casting in the first rain after a blood moon can promote good luck in discovering new spells,” she said.

Draco sighed. “Darling, if the Felix Felices didn’t help, I can’t see how a bit of rain will.”

Hermione kept at her magic. “I have to find the counter-curse,” she said stubbornly. Draco watched her another minute longer and then took up the thick gloves hanging beside the door. He slipped them on and then held up his wand to perform an umbrella charm as he walked out into the garden.

“Come inside, love,” he said, coming to her side and holding his wand up further to shelter his wife from the falling rain beneath the charm. She shook her head and went to keep casting, but he put his gloved hand to her arm to stop her. “Enough,” he said.

“No,” she sniffed, turning her face to him to reveal her tears.

Draco’s expression became grief-stricken at the sight, but he pressed her arm harder to finally make her stop. “You’ve been at it for eighty years,” he said softly. “Enough.”

Hermione looked up at him. “I need to feel the warmth of my husband again before I die,” she said miserably. Draco lifted his hand to gently swipe his thumb over the faded scar on her wrinkled cheek.

“Shall it be today, then?” he whispered, looking her in the eyes. Hermione searched his gaze a moment and then nodded.

Draco took in a deep, steady breath and then smiled at her as he lowered his wand. He let it fall to the grass before removing his glasses and gloves to drop them at his feet as well.

“You’re sure?” he asked, squinting slightly through the rain and his aged eyesight.

“I don’t want to live another day in a world where I cannot have you,” she said, dropping her wand as well.

“You’ve always had me,” he said. “You’ll always have me.”

Hermione smiled then. “I love you,” she said.

Draco took a step closer. “I love you,” he said as he leaned in.

He set his lips to hers and they immediately threw their arms around each other to embrace against the flare of the curse that had kept them apart for so long. They held tight. Flames licked to life around them.

They never let go.


End file.
